A reader contacted me over the weekend asking for more information about the Enneagram (pronounced any-a-gram), which I mentioned briefly in my last post.
What is the Enneagram?
I explained that the Enneagram (which I teach) is at best a profound tool for personal and spiritual transformation and at worst, a parlour game in which we try to fit ourselves and others into narrow and stereotypical definitions of personality.
Which is probably a rather unhelpful answer! Because what is it?
Ancient roots, modern wisdom
A number of ancient wisdom traditions gave rise in the mid-20th Century to the development of a psychological system which describes nine “personality types” each with a distinct pattern of characteristics and a distinct way of seeing the world.
Put like this it seems both crude and implausible. How can all of humanity be distilled into only nine types. Well how can one brief explanation encompass all the subtleties of this way of exploring our inner worlds which thousands find invaluable? It can’t.
And what I’m writing today doesn’t try to explain the details of the Enneagram itself.
What’s the point?
What really interests me is the seeking itself, this hunger that comes upon as at certain times of our lives to explore our inner worlds and begin to understand the fullness of our humanity.
It doesn’t actually matter what methods we use. Perhaps we use the Enneagram, Myers Briggs, prayer, meditation, counselling, journalling, yoga. There’s a saying:
When the sage points to the moon, the fool looks at the finger
I think the mechanisms by which we gain inner understanding are the finger.
Every missing piece of the puzzle that comprises our individual and collective humanity is like a word missing from our vocabulary. Without it we are unable fully to express the concept it describes.
Which is why I believe these fingers pointing, these methods that aid understanding, are so important. Not which method, just that we use one to begin or continue the exploration.
I believe it’s only by doing our inner work of transformation that we regain our humanity.
How do you go about understanding your inner life?